Moving day - sort of, work bonus, weekend plans

I am meeting with Matt and Crystal (my immediate supervisors) this afternoon to move the cart I typically use for presenting my online classes from the office to the house. The cart has two large monitors mounted on a single stand as well as the power cables and docking station required to use the arrangement. Those monitors can be moved in almost any direction with the arms attaching them to the stand. It is quite top heavy, and awkward so it will be a chore to get the apparatus disassembled, packed into a vehicle, then offloaded and reassembled. An additional set up has been ordered for the office so that we have a backup, just in case. I do not have to use the tall cart, but it allows me to sit on a stool height chair when presenting the class. That positioning gives me a better position in the frame of the web cam as I present the class versus sitting at a desk. It is not really necessary, but I like the look better. It seems more professional. Anyway, the three of us will make that move today so that I can be fully set up to start using the HQ house as my primary broadcast point for the ninety or so classes I have left to present this year.

In recognition of the effort in presenting all the classes I have done thus far, I was given a large bonus by Energy Worldnet. It is not something they do on a regular basis, so the generosity is greatly appreciated on my part. Mama and I are praying about what to do with the extra money so as we make those decisions, the money will sit and wait. What I have told my children over the years concerning money is true for me as well, “You can only send it once. Make it count.” Having just gone through our mission’s Conference only a few days back, I can honestly say the greatest value Mama and I have gotten out of money that we have tried to manage is in the money we have given to mission’s.

I cannot speak to any specific outcome from that giving, but I know in my heart, that that spending of money will produce eternal outcomes – providing for those things that will never fade away, those things that are nearest to the heart of God. Balancing that giving with the day to day needs of our life in this world is the challenge. To spend just enough on our temporal needs so that we always have something to give to the Lord’s work as those needs are presented to us. It is always disappointing to have no money available to give when a need to which we feel compelled to give is presented to me and Mama. I try to avoid that situation as much as possible, but I have failed often enough to be aware of and troubled by the issue. So, Mama and I will consider those needs first, then look to our life and farm needs at present and in the future. If nothing is urgent, the bulk of the bonus will be placed in saving for future use.

This Saturday I will try to complete some of the tasks I have had on a list for several weeks. I am not sure how many hours of rain we are expecting, but we are forecast to get another half inch of rain Saturday, so plans will need to be amended to accommodate the rain if it does come. The beehive work has been tentatively postponed until Monday. That will leave me extra time for a couple other little projects – most of which are cleanup chores. Mama is hoping to mow tomorrow, but again, we do not if that will need to be put off until next week. Besides the ground is very soft because of the recent rains. One of the more pressing chores is to prepare a place for the fifteen chicks Mama now has in totes in the garage. The young chickens in the nursery coop are too large to mix with the chicks we need to put in the nursery, and they are too small to mix with the full-grown chickens in the coop. A difficult situation. It will be fun to see how we manage to work that out.

One of the ongoing projects I have to get done is repairing the fence on the south and west sides of our property. I am not yet sure what is needed, but I will begin that work tomorrow. It will take me several weeks and maybe several hundred dollars to get that done, but I cannot avoid it much longer. I was told years ago that good fences make good neighbors. That has definitely proven true here on the farm. And I do not have a good fence for any of the 1500 feet of fence in question. By Texas standards, that is not much fence, but when all the work has to be done by myself, it is a daunting task. If I can manage to get one hundred feet repaired per weekend, it will take me the rest of the year to see the task completed. The pace of the repair is dependent on how much cleaning each section of fence requires before it can be repaired. Some areas need a lot of cleaning of vines, small trees and thorn bushes. The only good thing I can say about that is that once it is done, it will be done for years to come.

Still, it seems like a huge undertaking.

The rain, the doctor, the social

Overnight and into this morning we got an accumulated two inches of rain. We are in bad need of the rain, so it was a blessing. The main issues we deal with when we have that volume of rain is the flooding under the chicken coop because the water has no outlet at the front of the coop building and the softening of the ground. Mama and I must have a bad mole problem because we are seeing multitudes of their tunnels around the farm, especially near the animals. When we get this amount of rain all those hollowed out areas flood with water and get very soft. As she tended to the chickens this morning Mama sank into a hole that almost took her boot off. I will have to figure out a way to deal with the moles as well as their topside cousins, the mice. We seem to be overrun with both at the moment. I have had very poor success controlling the mice in the house. I have set out dozens of traps and have caught only a couple mice. I have no idea how to deal with the moles, but the rain makes their handywork a mess when navigating the areas where they have been working underground.

The rain is supposed to continue off and on for the next couple of days with a total of another inch expected. I had planned on working the hives Saturday but that will have to wait until Monday when we are expected to be dryer and warmer. There is no particular hurry for the work I need to get done for the bees, but the timing is fairly set as far as the season is concerned. Honey supers are supposed to go on the hives at the first of May – for our area. That ensures enough time for the bees to fill the suers with honey by early fall. Since we have no plans for Monday evening, I should be easily able to get the honey supers installed, refill the syrup feeder for the newest hive and reposition the candy boards I have left on three of the hives above the honey supers easily. The entire activity should only take about an hour. Perhaps a little longer, but not much more than that.

I took off a few hours from work this morning because of a doctor’s appointment I had early in the day. I got a very good report from the doctor. My blood pressure was right in line with what they want – and what I want – and all my recent lab work was in range. I did get more blood work done this morning and I should have those results in a couple days. I anticipate that there will be no change to the regimen of meds I am on to manipulate my body to perform according to requirements set forth by my doctors. It is a sad state of affairs when you have to take medications to be “normal”, but it is a great alternative to dying from a condition that can be easily remedied with a tiny pill. It seems to be a good tradeoff for now.

Last night after church, we had a social. Our first for over a year where we were allowed to bring the desserts from which everyone could serve themselves. There was plenty of hand sanitizer set out, not that I used any, but it was available for everyone should they choose to apply it. The activity, the conversation, the play of all the children that were there with their parents let to a noisy gathering. It was wonderful. Something I have missed for over a year. What was the risk to any one of us? No more than handling canned goods or bags of chips at any of the local stores where those items are placed on shelves by persons who are not wearing gloves. Those same items are handled by shoppers who are not wearing gloves. Don’t get me wrong. I am not in favor of everyone being required to wear gloves of masks, but what the germ police see as desperately needed, I see as wholly unnecessary.

All this continued fear mongering puts our pastor is a problematic position. Trying to balance the church interaction between those who still live in great fear with those of us who feel the fear is manufactured cannot be an easy task. We still have several people at our church that have been fully vaccinated yet still wear masks all the time. That amazes me. But these are people I love and while I do not want to add to their fears, I will not live in fear with them. Those who are still masked up did not attend the fellowship last night, but they did not fault those of us who did. Nor did we fault them.

Hopefully, they will not find fault with our pastor as he tries to find enough common ground to keep most of her congregation happy.

Real commitment, real joy, new digs

Our Mission’s Conference has been very good. Just the recharge we needed. Moving presentations from the missionaries that have presented – going to Mozambique, Iceland, and Panama, respectively. Dr Fielder, who is director of Worldview Ministries, a group that focuses on unreached people groups by translating the Bible into the heart language of those people groups, has preached some very convicting sermons. Sermons on prayer, the practice of our faith, on our participation in the Gospel outreach and on exercising our potential in the Lord for that outreach effort worldwide. It has been very challenging. Mama and I have been reviewing each message together and asking ourselves, what more does God have available for us to do in the work of missions?

Neither of us are physically capable at this point in our lives of taking on the work of fulltime missionary service, but there is still plenty to do here that we are able to do. Witnessing, handing out tracts, praying for the lost, encouraging fellow believers, remaining faithful to the local body of believers where God has placed us to serve. Sharing from what we have of our lives, our time, and our resources. At times it does not seem like enough, but it is what the Lord is asking of us for now and we are committed to be faithful. My life may not gain many crowns in Heaves, but I would like to at least gain the Crown of Faithfulness.

I read a brief article in the news this morning that spoke to the abject oppressiveness of the “woke” philosophies pervading the thinking across the news media as well as within our national government. How that message of “tolerance” and “diversity” and “equity” is sucking the joy out of our daily lives. We cannot watch a movie or TV show or enjoy a sporting event without being bombarded by the woke politically correct crowd kneeling for our anthem, badmouthing our country by telling us what a horrible country we are – a country that has made many of those participants very wealthy – intentionally oppressing those of us who feel and believe differently. In the article, the author proposed and idea. Let’s get our joy back. Take our masks off and smile at each other. Find things to celebrate with each other. Laugh and play like we are a free people.

Such expressions of joy, which are fully warranted because we live in the United States of America, will drive the doom spreading woke crowd nuts. As believers, we understand that the real source of joy is the Holy Spirit living within us. That has not changed and cannot be changed by external circumstances. When someone tries to dampen your spontaneous outburst of joy, laugh in their face and remind then they are free to express such hateful and demeaning speech, but we do not have to avoid offending their overly sensitive nature because we both live in the greatest country on Earth. We are as free to express our true joy as they are to express their ginned up, unreal oppressive gloom. One emotion (our joy) is true. The other (their manufactured guilt and gloom) is not. Over time, we will see which wins the hearts of men.

Yesterday I met the CEO of our company at the house he refers to as HQ. In our recent renovation of the office there has also been a renovation of the house. We met at the house so he could show me the setup they are considering for the online classes I am teaching at the pace of two per week. I will no longer have a space at the office for presenting those classes, hence the setup at the house. It will work out very well as envisioned. I spent a few hours setting up a desk with monitors which I will use as an office space. Friday I will get the cart I have been using for presenting the classes and transport it to the house. Next Tuesday I will begin using that as the primary venue for presenting the classes. For now, I will be the only one at the house even though there will eventually be fifteen desks set up there.

The house itself is a beautiful two-story house with two huge barns set on 41 acres. There is a pool which has a waterfall built into the pool setup, a gourmet kitchen and lots of decorative additions to the house. The dining room is now set up as a meeting area with a breakfast nook with a large bay window set up as an eating area. There is a pillared front entry and a large living room just off the front room which has been set aside for the training room I will be using. They have carefully maintained the beauty of the house while setting it up for office space. The only issue I have with the room I will be occupying is the echo within the room. It has a high vaulted ceiling and is virtually empty for now. We will need to muffle the echo a bit, but I believe some plans are in the works to address that. It will be a very good setup for the classes I need to present and I got the impression that it will be my primary office space. That even when I am not teaching a class, I am free to report there for work versus finding a space in the main office on the days I am required to work from the office.

I can live with that.

Meat, meeting, more chicks, mission’s

All my plans for last weekend got scuttled when we got a text from the processor that our meat was ready to pick up. The text Mama got implied some urgency. Their freezers were full, and they were needing everyone to come get their meat as soon as possible. So, I headed to the processing plant early Saturday morning and go there about an hour after they opened. I was the fourth or fifth in line to get my order but as I began to talk to those who were ahead of me as issue came to light. One gentleman had been waiting over an hour to get his order. Another had been waiting almost as long. One of the first in line was a local rancher who knew the owners and when I suggested that we help them pull the orders, he went inside and got permission to do so. I had brought a jacket with me that morning, so I put it on and headed into the freezers. When we were told that the freezers were full, they had not exaggerated at all. There was only a tiny space in either of the freezers to move about enough to read the names on the boxes containing the processed meats, but I eventually gathered my five boxes and ten of the fifteen boxes that the rancher was looking for. I left about an hour after I had gotten there and headed straight home with the meat. I do not think our meat was frozen thoroughly because it had thawed more than I expected by the time I was loading it into the chest freezer.

To fit the five large boxes of meat into the freezer we had to take out three of the six turkeys and two large hams we had in that freezer. Even then it was a tight fit, but we got it all in. I thawed one turkey and one ham to smoke. We gave one ham to Katy Shaw who was at the training with Mama that morning and we took two turkeys to the church for the pastor to smoke. They will be served tomorrow for the meal we provide for the missionaries that are at our Mission’s Conference. Nothing went to waste. We were thankful for that but since we have so much meat, Mama and I are selling off a large portion of it in package deals. Offering a defined package for a set price seems to appeal to those we offered the purchases to. We had three orders as soon as the package and price was mentioned.

Since Mama and I had to deliver the turkeys to the church we went to Tractor Supply to get some pine savings for the coop and a couple cans of Mocha’s food. As we were walking into the store, we crossed paths with a couple carrying out a brood box for a beehive. When Mama asked them about their bees, they told us that they were taking the brood box to their home to catch a swarm of bees in a tree by their flower garden. I explained that the box they had bought was not a full beehive and would not do what they wanted if to do. They would need a full hive to provide a home for the swarm. They mulled that over as Mama and I went into the store to get our few items and on a whim, I went to the area of the store where they had the beehive kits for sale. They had only one available. As we were standing there the couple approached us again and we had a long discussion. Phone numbers were exchanged and late that evening we found out that they followed our directions and set the hive on a couple cinder blocks near the swarm, baited the hive with lemon grass oil and sat back and watched and the entire swarm marched into the hive set up for them. The couple was overjoyed by their success. We put them in touch with a member of our bee club that lives near them so they would have help relocating the hive in a few days.

After all that, Mama and I went to the Wycoff’s to get the 15 additional chicks Mama had ordered back in February. Brittany had over 100 chicks in the order, so she had held on to Mama’s small order for us. We had already prepared a place in the garage for the tiny ones, so it was no real trouble to get them situated. They will stay in the totes for a week or so while I retrofit the nursery coop to accommodate them. I have to separate them from the six-week-old chicks we now have in the nursery coop, but that should not be a huge problem. We visited for a long time while we were there. We were in no particular hurry, so by the time we got back home, our day was spent. I had not gotten anything from my list of chores for the weekend accomplished, but we did get a lot of other things done.

Our Mission’s Conference started Sunday and it has been great. It makes for a busy week since we have services every night through Wednesday, but it also makes for a wonderful week of focus on the work of missions. Every so often we need to be reminded of the work that is at the heart of God – saving lost souls.

Class yesterday, expensive dump, final cleaning, the weekend

I had a visitor with me in class yesterday. He is coworker who is being evaluated for teaching the class I teach most often, which is about twice per week. My management has seen the need to expand our instructor pool especially in light of the fact that 85 classes were added to the Instructor Led Training schedule – classes I am responsible to teach – through the end of the year. That is a heavy schedule for one person, hence the need for getting more instructors on boarded to fulfill that schedule. Anyway, yesterday’s class was a fairly typical class, eight participants, little feedback or interaction from those eight participants, seven hours of constant talking on my part.

My colleague was impressed as well as intimidated by the very lengthy dialogue. The fortunate advantage I have in such a setting is that I have 40 years of experiences to share stories and anecdotes from in such a setting because of the chemical plants, refineries and control rooms I have worked in. Many of my past experiences overlap with the real world of the class participants. I like to tell stories and people like to hear stories. All of the stories I tell fit into the material presented in the class. My coworker worried because he has no such experience to draw from, but he will figure out how to fill the time properly as he gains experience in presenting the class. After all, when I first started working at Energy Worldnet, we had our sales staff teaching the course I now teach. None of them had any real-world experience in the areas of work that our clients manage on a daily basis and we had gotten by what that for years.

As soon as I got home from work Mama and I hurriedly fed, and I loaded a king-sized mattress Grandma and Grandpa had discarded to be offloaded at the little dump station we have near us. Surprisingly, it cost us fifteen dollars to leave the mattress with the dump. Mama and I loaded the box springs at the rental house when we went there for our final cleaning assignment. She had not had room to haul them off the previous day. Today I will see how much it costs to discard those two box springs that were the foundation for the mattress, but I am expecting about the same charge to offload those furniture items. Thirty dollars to discard a bed seems a bit expensive, but at least it will be properly discarded.

At that house, the power had already been turned off to the house so we could not vacuum as we had intended, so Mama wiped a few things down and scrubbed a little in the refrigerator. All in all, the house looked well cleaned so our work there was light and quick. It was not until after we had left the house that Grandma told us that left a quart of ice cream in the freezer. That is going to be a mess to clean up. We did not see it because Mama had emptied the freezer the day before and did not check it when we were there last night. Mama called the landlord to let him know of our oversight as well as to alert him that we had hauled off the last of the items left at the house. Sadly, the ice cream mess will his to deal with. I do not think Mama is going to make a return trip to the house to clean up that mess.

Tomorrow, sometime in the later afternoon, I will put the honey supers on three of the hives. I am looking froward to that chore. While I am in the hives, I will need to refill the syrup feeder on the newest hive. Mama has a several hours long meeting tomorrow with a trainer working for the National Guard. Since Mama agreed to be a treasurer for Kenny NA Kim Cantrell’s Boots and Badges ministry, she has had several trainings. This one will be one of the longest. Kimberlyn was supposed to come and participate in the training but it looks like that is not going to happen. However, Katy Shaw will be here with Mama while the training is being presented. Mama is not looking froward to the training because she is always hesitant to take on something new – especially something this new. She will do fine with the information and it will be a great growth experience for her. Having Katy here during the training should allow her to bounce questions off of someone other than the trainer.

Other than the hive work and training, I will continue cleaning up around the farm. In some ways I would like to start thinning out the growth of small trees around the pond we have in the barn lot, but I am not sure I am ready to tackle that yet. It will be a lot of dragging and lifting to get the brush collected and piled away from the cleaned area. I do not know how my back will hold up for all that. My constant back pain is one of the reasons I have tackled only light duty chores around the farm, but there are a wealth of chores requiring more effort that still need to be done.

I will need to pace myself in those chores and choose the time to tackle them carefully since I am doing the work by myself.

Moving day, the frost, a long farewell, office space

I left work yesterday evening and headed directly to Bowie. Mama was already there and had been for several hours helping getting the final packing done; dishes, pots and pans, and the last items in the fridge and freezer. When I got there, I saw a lot of boxes and furniture items still scattered around inside the little house, Outside was pretty much cleaned up. All the items Norman had put out to be sold were gone with very few exceptions. As we visited, I heard the plan to deliver most of the remaining furniture items to a local charity. That will happen early this morning after Mama brings the truck to them to make those drop-offs. By noon, the house will be empty and the trailer and truck carrying Grandma and Grandpa to Florida will be full. By late this afternoon, Texas will be in their rearview mirror. It will be sad to see them go but we are praying everything works out well for them. At the very least, they have the RV set up and ready for them to move right in as soon as they get there. Probably, late tomorrow evening.

I did not stay long in Bowie because I had a lot of things to do at the farm to get ready for the frost that came overnight. I moved all the large pots containing vegetable plants into the garage. We could not have covered them all, but we did try to cover the peach tree and the nectarine tree. We also placed small pots, buckets, and boxes over the plants in the garden that we thought would benefit from doing so. Norman had given me a drape that could be used to cover a trailer when hauling trash to the dump and we placed that over the raised bed. Whether or not it will protect the plants there is questionable, but we gave it a try. All that work will be undone by this afternoon.

We will know later today or tomorrow when the sun is hot enough to show us which of the plants were burnt by the frost. I was up before sunrise and was surprised to see the temperature reading 38° F, but when I looked at the grass in the back yard, I could see a heavy frost. At some point the temperature had been at or below freezing so all our efforts had not been misspent. Whether we accomplished what we wanted – saving the fruit on the trees and keeping the tender plants from being killed by the frost – is still not known for certain, but it looks hopeful.

Mama will again spend her morning with Grandma and Grandpa as they clean out the house and get all their things situated in the truck and trailer for their trek to Florida. It will be a long farewell on Mama’s part. I get the impression that Grandma and Grandpa do not see it that way. Somehow, they feel that they will be as accessible to Mama and Victoria as they have been in the past. Sadly, that will not be the case since any travel to visit with them would cost us a thousand dollars and use up what vacation either Victoria or I had to use for the travel. Norman travels across the United States and talks about it as though it was the easiest thing in the world to do. Such is not the case for us. Hopefully, they make friends quickly and get settled just as quickly so they do not feel any loss at having moved away from the life they have had near us in Texas for the past ten years. Again, we will be praying for them that all this works out to their benefit, but it will be difficult to help them in an emergency or get to them in any hurried way should they need us.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. Through the end of the year. I am scheduled to present two classes per week. Not a bad schedule providing nothing happens to interfere with my availability for those classes, the vast majority of which are online classes. As the office is being renovated this week I am being allowed access on a limited basis to be able to present these classes. Beginning in May I will be set up at a remote location in a house owned by the company that is about five miles from the office. I have not seen the house or the set-up that will be made available to me there, but I am looking froward to it. With the way management is setting up the office space, it is going to be a bit of a mess. No one in the new office arrangement is assigned a space from which to work. All the “desks” are doled out on a first come first serve basis. All will be identical in set up, somewhat like an internet workstation at a motel or library. No individuality allowed. No privacy offered. No personal space claims acknowledged. Only a few limited exceptions.

Because of the class presentation load imposed on myself and Ana, our Instructor Led Training admin, we have been given a space designated for our use in the closet we use to house the records we keep under lock and key at the office. Fortunately, most of the Tuesday, Thursday working from the office  schedule I am required to observe is spent presenting classes from the remote location. I will not need to be in the office very often. I cannot be certain, but I do not think anyone will be jealous of the closet space set apart for me and Ana to claim as our private work area. It will be pretty cramped, but it will be ours.

Mostly Ana’s.

Our newest vocalist, final packing, a quick freeze, honey

Becky sent Mama a video of her and Bridgette singing a special in church yesterday morning. On the song they sang together, Becky sang the verses and Bridgette sang the chorus with her. Bridgette did a great job on the song and sang out with confidence. The recording was not the best, so I had trouble distinguishing the words to the song, but it was clear Bridgette enjoyed herself as she sang with her mama. Pray for Becky and Mike as they are in the process of attempting to adopt a child that is being fostered by the pastor of the church they are attending. That process looked fairly certain until a week ago, now things are getting complicated as other potential adoptive families have expressed a strong interest in the child. We will know in the next few days what the judge decides concerning the welfare of the child, but it is stressing Becky a good deal.

Saturday evening Mama and I took Mr. Plumley over to Grandma and Grandpa’s. I helped Norman get some junk – literally – out of the very full trailer and set it up for the sale that would begin Sunday morning. Grandpa gave Mr. Plumley a few small tools for which Mr. Plumley was extremely grateful. I do not know if Mr. Plumley will ever use the tools, but he is elated to have them – and for free. Mama and I brought home a few items but left the majority of the junk there for Norman to sell. By the time we called to check on the progress of the sale Sunday afternoon, they had sold almost everything, and Norman was looking for us to contribute more items for them to continue the sale. We have nothing to add on short notice, so I am not sure if the sale will continue through Tuesday as planned, but that is all for the best as far as getting the final packing for the move to Florida done.

Mama will spend the majority of the day with Grandma and Grandpa as they examine what they have left to get rid of in order to empty the little house. Whatever is not sold will be hauled off to the dump tomorrow and they will begin their trek to Florida Wednesday morning. I will go to say my goodbyes tomorrow evening. Their plans have been set and their choices have been made. Over the next few months, we will see how things turn out. I certainly wish them well and will be praying for them, but I am still unconvinced that this is a good move for Grandma and Grandpa at this point in their lives.

Tomorrow night the temperatures are forecast to be below freezing. That freeze will only last a few hours, but it has the potential to cause a lot of damage to our plants and trees. Mama and I will move the pots in which we have vegetables growing into the garage for the night. We will cover as best we can the peach and nectarine trees. Both those trees are loaded with fruit and we want to preserve that crop of fruit if we can.  We will cover the raised bed to help protect the vegetable plants there from getting frostbitten. Then we will hope for the best. We were told by one of our friends at church that what they do in these situations is to get up before dawn and rinse the frost off the plants before the sun comes up. The water coming out of the well is about 45°, well above the temperature of the frost on the plants. Getting the plants above freezing before the sun warms the frozen leaves of the plants limits the damage greatly. So, will be up early Wednesday morning to see if that works. Providing I have a hose that is not frozen.

Saturday I took the time to look into the new hive we created a couple weeks ago and found the busy bees filling in the frames – drawing them out, in beekeeper speak – but the syrup feeder I placed in the hive that weekend was bone dry. I had expected that to be the case, so I filled it back up with some freshly made syrup. That should last the bees a week or more. I will find out for sure this coming Saturday. At that time, I will also open the other hives to see how the bees are progressing on the new hive bodies I installed a week ago and I will add the honey supers to those three hives. The new hive will not be ready for a honey super this year. If we get three full honey supers, we will have plenty of honey to process. Potentially well over one hundred pounds. Time will tell.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow.

While I was teaching, drawing a crowd, another new home

While I was teaching Mama, Grandma, Grandpa and Normal loaded the contents of the little rental house Grandma and Grandpa have been living in for a over a year into the RV purchased that morning, keeping back only enough clothing and personal items to get them through the next week. Larger furniture items and appliances are going to be sold off this weekend and Norman will return to collect Grandma and Grandpa Wednesday of next week. I will probably go over this evening to say my goodbyes. Chances are I will not see them again in this life. Only now is the reality of what they are doing starting to dawn upon them. The nearest of Grandma’s siblings will be over an hour from where they will be living.

Closer for certain than they have been, but not close enough to be a part of their life in any practical way. Norman will be on the road more time than not, so he will not be very involved in their daily life in any practical way either. They will be somewhat isolated living out of the RV. Mama and I are still not sure where the RV is going to be parked but we have been told that they will be about 90 minutes from Orlando, FL. Eventually everything will work out, but there will be some adjusting in the beginning to figure out how to begin their new life in their new setting. New banking arrangements, new places to shop and pick up their prescriptions, new doctors to find and get in to see, plenty of new neighbors to meet, etc. It should be interesting to see how quickly they are able to adapt. We will definitely be praying for them. I hoe at least some of their expectation will be met, but they have managed to be disappointed in the end with every move they have ever made. Sadly, this will probably be their last move. I am praying I is a good one.

Class yesterday went very well. My back was hurting more than normal but I made it through by leaning on the lectern that was set up for me and sitting quite a bit more than normal in the stool provided. All but one of the six participants was a fellow employee, so I structured my presentation a bit differently in order to tailor it to the needs of those I work with versus those who work in the oil and gas industry. The lone client in the room did not mind at all how the presentation was given, in fact, he told me at the end of the class that it was the best training class he had ever attended in all his years of work in the industry. That was encouraging.

I was worn out – as I typically am – by the time I had packed up after the class and driven home. Mama and I ate a small dinner and I sat in my recliner to listen to Dan Bongino as I drifted in and out of sleep for about an hour. When I finally roused myself, it was time to get ready for church. Mama was already ready, so, we got to church early. In fact, we were among the very first to arrive. That always makes Mama nervous for some reason, but it always gives her more time to visit. She almost always has a group of youngsters around her soon after she arrives. Primarily the young girls in the church. They talk nails and jewelry and chickens and other sundry topics. They are always interested to know what is happening in Mama’s world. I do not consider our lives particularly interesting, but those young ones do, and they revel in those moments of connection before the service begins. It is always fun to watch, to not be able to sit with Mama before the service because I cannot get into the pew by reason of the crowd she has gathered.

I will be in class tomorrow but not as the instructor. Hopefully, I will have my computer to use tomorrow. The last time Red taught a class I had to give him my computer for the day because we could not get his to connect to the class properly. I am going prepared to give up my computer for the day, but I hope it does not come to that. I have plenty to do if I have my computer to work with.

Mama and Victoria are talking about getting Victoria an RV to place here on the farm to offer Victoria a place of her own. I am not enamored with the idea, but I am not opposing it. Setting up an RV requires a good deal of work and a good deal of money. I am just not convinced that the layout of thousands of dollars to provide a small remote living quarters is a good way to spend that money. Can it be done? Of course, it can. Should it be done? Probably not. Will it be done? Perhaps, but not easily. The ball is rolling now, and we will just have to wait to see how this investigation turns out.

Once the price for the setup is known, we can make the decision.

New responsibilities, relocation and retirement

Mama spent a good portion of the day running errands yesterday. Errands for her business and errands for home. Today will be much the same. She is meeting with Kim Cantrell this morning to take a training on how to assume the responsibilities as treasurer for the ministry the Cantrell’s have to the National Guard. Boots and Badges is the name of that ministry. I am not sure what the duties will be for Mama in the role she is taking on, but she and Kimberlyn will work together this morning to get her started. The training is a couple hours long and I am sure there will be no particular hurry on Kimberlyn’s part to get back home. After the training and visit, Mama will be going to Grandma and Grandpa’s to help them pack for the move they are planning.

Norman and Grandpa are supposed to purchase a used RV for Grandma and Grandpa to pack all their personal belongings into for the move they are planning this month. Norman will then haul the RV to Florida and set it up for them. On the 20^th of the month, he will return to get Grandma and Grandpa and haul them to the new lodgings. At least, that is the travel itinerary at the moment. We will see how that works out. I do not know when I will make my way over to say goodbye, but I will definitely make that trip soon. There is only a week left of their time in Texas. I hope they find what they are looking for in Florida, and I wish them well. There are more challenges ahead of them than they realize and there is a strong possibility that we will not have the chance to see them again before one of them passes on. I hope they are not disappointed in the choice, but their heart is not here anymore, so they are traveling to more promising venues and the chance to be around family as they age. Florida has some wonderful areas to visit if Grandma and Grandpa have the desire to do so. I should work out well for them overall.

I will be teaching a class tomorrow. It will be an in-person class comprised mostly of employees from our company. Fortunately for my voice, the class I was scheduled to teach on Thursday was cancelled due to lack of interest. It is a challenge for my voice to teach back-to-back classes, so we try to avoid scheduling them in that way, but that is how it falls from time to time. Friday I will be in a class, but I will not be the instructor. I have been asked to provide oversight to the class because we had one pretty bad review of the last online class taught by the instructor scheduled for Friday. I am not sure how to help without being obvious, but I will try.

I am starting to do a serious study of our financial needs going froward to determine when I can retire. I have asked a couple financial advisors to put me in touch with someone who can guide me through the process of signing up for Medicare when I have my next birthday, but I have not been provided that information yet. I am sure it is more nuanced than most people know, and I want to get it right from the inception rather than discover my mistakes along the way. If that is even possible. I do know that in the multitude of counselors there is wisdom. Therefore, I am seeking that counsel. I am not happy with the numbers I am currently seeing in my financial diagnosis, but we are not far from where we need to be to get to the point that retirement is possible in the very near future. Fortunately, as I have said before, the job I am currently working is low impact and I should be able to carry on with it until I can back away from the routine completely. Soon, but not yet. Besides, for the most part, I enjoy this job.

I have looked at retiring outside of the United States but am not willing to seriously consider that at the moment. Maybe because the right opportunity has not come along. Maybe because I am too used to the conveniences of life here. Maybe because it would be too much of a hardship on Mama. Maybe because it would be too difficult for our children and grandchildren to reach us if they desired to do so. Maybe because we love our church family and love being a part of that ministry and that congregation. Maybe because we love the farm, and the life God has given us here and it would far too challenging to replace it. Especially at our age. Whatever the case, I am not looking that direction right now. I certainly cannot see Mama and I living in a camper at an RV park as part of our quest for a better future. That would require a special calling of the Lord to go that direction. He has not done so..yet.

So, here we stay. That is not a bad thing. It is our happy place and so few people have that.

Apiary work, cleaning, relocating

Early Saturday morning I completed the assembly of the hive parts I had recently purchased with the plan to put those parts on the three hives that are ready for them. James, my bee mentor, had stopped by to return the hive tool he had inadvertently taken with him after we worked the hives together, and told me that in several hives he had looked into the rate at which the bees were filling the frames was faster than he had anticipated. He was struggling to keep up with some of his 80 hives to ensure the bees did not swarm looking for more room.

That was a warning to me to get the addition brood boxes on the hives as soon as possible. I did that Saturday afternoon. As I looked into each hive, I did notice there had been a huge leap in how much the bees had filled in on the frames (10 in all) in the hive. In one hive the bees were on the last frame, about half done building out the comb for the queen to begin laying in it. On the other two hives there were still a couple frames to be completed but the work had started on those as well. I added the new boxes, and the bees immediately began to investigate. Now there is plenty of room for the hive to grow. In the first week of May, I will add the homey supers to the hives. If the Lord blesses our efforts, we should have a lot of honey to share and to sell by the Fall.

Since I had an extra brood box and I had a base for a hive setup, I took the time to make a cover for a hive. In doing so, I have a complete hive set up and ready to go should I need it. The swarm traps are still empty, but they are in place in the event that a swarm happens by. I do not have a pallet set up for more hives to be placed in our apiary but that will be fairly easy to get done if I decide to do so. Plus, I hope to be able to put a swarm in the top bar hive this year so we can try that out. It is very tempting to keep adding hives as we are able, but I cannot get too far ahead of myself or build something I cannot maintain. On the bright side, keeping bees is a light duty activity that I should be able to keep up with for many years to come. If the Lord tarries.

I have been concerned about the stubble and refuse in the goat barn and have cleaned up in the barn several times, but it really needed a more focused cleaning, so Saturday I tackled that chore. I used the tractor for this cleaning and filled the bucket on the front loader four times with the hay, manure and dirt I raked, scraped, and dug from the barn floor. When I strawed the floor after cleaning out what needed to be removed, you could not tell I had done much, but I knew the difference. I wish I had built the barn to allow the tractor to fit through the center of the barn, but it is about six inches too low to accommodate the exhaust pipe. I scraped out what I could reach in the center of the barn from each end but that left about six feet of area I could not scrape with the tractor bucket. That and the sides had to be done by hand. The whole cleaning process took me a couple hours and wore out my back, but I was happy with the result. I was able to apply lime and Seven dust to the floor to limit mites and fleas and I expanded my compost pile quite a bit. My next big cleanup project is the corral where the calf spent several months before it died. Plenty to add to my compost pile from there.

Mama spent the most of Saturday with Mr. Plumley. After she had guided Grandma and Grandpa to the eye doctor’s office in Decatur, she went to Bridgeport and got Mr. Plumley and took him to Trade Days with her. I was tempted to go along but did not want to use up the better part of the day meandering through vendor displays looking at things I did not want or need. As it turned out, I made the right decision as far as using my time more effectively at the farm. Mama was not home until almost 5 pm. After she and Mr. Plumley had gone through the Trade Day’s collection of sellers, they went to visit with Grandma and Grandpa. Grandma and Grandpa need that connection and as long as they are here, we will make the effort to keep connected. They are planning to move to Florida sometime in the next couple weeks.

This weekend, Norman is coming to Texas and will buy them a camper which he will haul to Florida and set up the following week. After a quick trip to West Virginia, he will come back here and pack up Grandma and Grandpa and move them to the camper wherever that is set. I’m not sure they know what they are getting into, but they are excited about the move. They have very high hopes and expectations about relocating near family – Grandma’s family, that is. It will probably turn out fine but living in a camper in an RV park is a difficult circumstance to predict. Just imagining Grandma getting into and out of a camper is troubling to me and Mama, but Grandma is excited about relocating and sees no issue with that at all.

Time will tell.

Toddler in the house, hive work, errands

Having a toddler in the house for the past several days had been both reviving and exhausting for Mama. Savanna has spent her days with Mama so Crystal would have more time and attention to devote to the move they are making. Just a couple months ago the owner of the house they are renting got an offer on the house and decided to sell it. They have to be out by the 15^th of this month. Finding an available house to rent that could accommodate a family of six was the first hurdle. Finding such a house in their price range was the second hurdle – especially since Trace has been recently laid off from a very good paying job. Once they found something acceptable, getting everything relocated while Trace continued to work doing whatever he could find was another hurdle. It looks like they are now near meeting all the deadlines imposed on them, but it has been a huge challenge. Mama has taken part of that challenge by keeping Savanna during the days. Not having to avoid a toddler in the mayhem of moving makes the whole process a little faster and safer, but it has been a challenge for Mama to keep up with the little one.

Savanna is exceptionally quiet. She is fairly compliant. She does not fear the dogs and is fascinated by Mocha. Like most toddlers, she does not play long with any one box of toys but flits from one to another without collecting the first ones she has scattered about. But she really prefers playing with thing that are not designated as playthings – dog chew toys, pots and pans, Mama’s nail sets, etc. Basically, everything within reach. That is the constant challenge for Mama as she tries to keep up with her business through the day. Focusing on business demands while steering Savanna away from the things she should not drag out and play with is a bit more wearisome than it used to be for Mama. The fact that she does not have anyone to call on for help makes it a bit more wearisome for her. Mama smiles and playfully scolds as she and Savanna work out the boundaries – and they thoroughly enjoy each other’s company – but it is more of a constant focus than Mama is used to applying to any one thing through the day. Savanna has had fun with Mama and has had no complaints about her mommy and daddy’s absence. She has little to do with me but that’s okay. I help where I can through the evenings.

On the advice of our friend and mentor I ordered additional parts for the hives Mama and I are stewarding. Those arrived yesterday and I built two of the brood boxes and the frames required for each last night. Those brood boxes will double the capacity of the hives so the bees in those hives do not feel the need to swarm. I will not add a brood box to the hive we split from an active hive because the queen, who will hatch this weekend, will not be laying eggs in her hive for a week or so an we want her to fill out the frames available to her before we add more frame. Sometime in May, I will expand that box. When I add the brood boxes, I will set the hives up to add the honey supers to each hive so the bees can begin to fill those frames with honey. Those will be added the first of May. The brood boxes are taller than the honey supers to provide more room for raising brood as the hive grows. I believe the honey boxes are smaller to limit the weight once the frames are full of honey. I am told those honey supers will weigh as much as eighty pounds once the frames are filled. I will build the two additional brood boxes this evening and do the additions to three hives tomorrow – hopefully.

My swarm traps have not caught any bees yet, but we are just now at the time where the swarms will start. When I do catch swarms, I will try to put one in the top bar hive I recently reworked. All other swarms I will have to find homes for versus adding hives to our apiary. I do not know if  rehoming the bees will be difficult, but I am assuming it will not be with two or three of our bee club members raising bees for honey production as their fulltime occupation. It is fun to see some success in raising these bees.

Mama will be doing some running today hoping to get a few odds and ends done so we do not have to do more running tomorrow. Milk from the dairy, posting packages, getting a few grocery items will be on her immediate list with additional side trips made just because she is out and going. I have a short list of activities for this weekend, but they are items that will each take some time to complete. Along with some cleanup and organizing, I will add boxes to the beehives and hopefully spend some time fishing – if the winds die down.

We will see how things play out in case we are tasked in helping with finalizing the move Trace and his family are making.

Fun visitors, back to work, Cori

Monday afternoon Stacy and Beth Ledford came to the farm. They are relocating from California to Missouri and are running a circuitous route in the process. We are a bit out of the way, but they were on their way to a seller in Granbury, TX to purchase parts for the plane Stacy is restoring which put the farm in the travel stops along the path to their new home. They got to the farm about 3:30 and while I finished up my workday, Mama showed them around the farm. In various places on the way to the farm they had stayed in RV parks using the pop-up camper slid into the bed of the truck they were driving. The camper is a newer type with solar power to charge batteries for lighting and other sundries. It looked very well made. Stacy told me that it was special ordered to accommodate their needs – at least to a limited degree.

As the farm tour progressed Stacy asked about the fishing in the quarry lake. I assured him it was amazing, and we decided that we would check it out in spite of the windy conditions. We fished the lower lake first and both caught some fair-sized bass, but the wind was making it challenging. So, we packed up and went to the upper small lake to try our luck there. The wind is less noticeable on that lake. We were having so much fun that Mama and Beth had to come over to find us and drag us home for dinner. Since we had enough daylight after dinner, we went back to the little lake and Stacy rigged up a jig that gave him great responses. In rapid succession he caught two large bass - one was huge – and several perch.

Meanwhile, I had caught three bass and one perch on my standard lures. I will definitely get the bobbers he was rigging with for use in the future. They worked extremely well in the clear water of the lakes and they kept the lure above the grass and weeds growing abundantly in that lake.  We left just before dark. All in all, we only fished about two hours, but it was great fun. Stacy talked about coming back our way after getting the plane parts loaded and spending Tuesday night with us, but that got nixed in lieu of getting home with the loaded trailer. Spending another night at the farm would have been great with us, and it would have been relaxing for them, but time is an asset we have to manage efficiently because we only get one shot at spending it. I am sure they will visit the farm again and hopefully Mama and I will get to visit their new home once they get settled in. It was great to reconnect with them and it is always great to share what the Lord has given us here at the farm.

Yesterday I taught an all-day class. It went well enough, but I had only four students, so the class went a little faster than it does with a larger audience. When a class ends a little early, there are never any complaints on the part of the attendees – nor on my part – but it calls into question the content we offer and whether or not it is sufficient for the timeframe which we advertise for the class. We do not want to shortchange our clients, but I do not want to talk them to death just to fill up time. Right now, the class is about 6 hours to complete the presentation and the test when given online – about 7 hours when given in person. Not a terrible difference, but a noticeable one that may cause an issue in our internal audits. Time will tell.

Cori has been battling an infection of some kind for the past week or more. The only treatable symptom thus far is severe dehydration. She has not been able to keep anything down, even fluids due to the vomiting and diarrhea any intake induces. A nurse Cori knows from church came to their home Monday and set her up with an IV drip giving her a couple bags of fluids to keep that drip going through today. So far Cori is feeling some relief although she is still not able to eat anything or to drink much without vomiting up whatever she does try to take in. The assumption is that the infection she is fighting stems from something she ingested, but no one is sure. Regardless, for the moment Cori can only treat the symptoms because it is not known whether she is battling a virus or a bacterium, or both, or whether this is a parasitic infection. Any of the three infections require a slightly different curative approach. For the moment, she must do what can be done and we can pray that Cori gets the strength to overcome whatever is ailing her. Prayer thankfully is a powerful curative we can access in abundance.

I will be in class tomorrow It is a shorter class, but in the evening, I have an appointment with a financial advisor to learn the best way to sign up for Medicare since I will be turning 65 in a few months.

Hopefully, that information will help me get off on the right foot.

Lot of activity at the farm

This weekend was a busy and productive one. Having Friday off was a blessing not only for the extra time it gave me on the farm, but also because it brought help to us that was much needed. Fairly early, I worked on the lights for the trailer to repair the break where the rats had chewed through the wiring, but I did not manage to repair it sufficiently to use the lights built into the trailer. Fortunately, I have a set of trailer lights that have magnetic bases on them to use in a pinch. They fit perfectly on this trailer as far as the length of the wiring was concerned. Once I made the first attempt at repairing the lights as the trailer sat near the pig building, I moved the trailer to butt up against the pig building and opened the sliding door on the back for the pig to climb into the trailer. She has a curious nature, and I did not have to wait long to shut her in the trailer. I left that in place for a while as I moved on to other things and to her credit, the pig just laid down and waited.

I moved some honey supers from the shop into the apiary area so they would be available when one of the professional beekeepers came by later Friday evening. He had texted Mama apologetically asking forgiveness for the rude way he had spoken to some of the club members in our Thursday night meeting. I did not feel I had been rudely treated, but I did need the help, so we set up a time for him to come by and work with me inspecting our three hives. That was not happening for a while, and I was not sure what we were going to do when he came, so I continued working on little projects feeling like I had done hat I could to be prepared to use his time wisely.

I did some cleanup in the pig building and moved the feed stored there to locations where it would get used. I planted a row of corn, a row of beets and a row of okra in the garden. I also added some crookneck squash to a row containing pumpkin plants. I split a turkey I had thawed and put the two halves on the smoker grill, and I made some cornbread so I could later use it to make cornbread dressing for our dinner Sunday. I did the planting while the cornbread was in the oven – just to make good use of the time. Mama was out running errands for her business and to get the last few items she needed for her Saturday event in Decatur. She was also returning phones to Sprint since we made the switch to AT&T. That return did not go well, but that is another story.

A potential goat buyer showed up at the farm just before James did and Mama met with her as I finished getting ready to meet James – our beekeeping clubmate. When he got to the farm we started right in on the hives. We opened all three hives to look for swarm cells. The first hive we opened had a couple, but they were no threat and the hive still has four frames that can be drawn out. The second hive had a complete swarm cell in it. James estimated that it was only a few days from hatching the queen bee growing inside. (The long cocoon-looking thing on the bottom of the frame is a fully formed swarm cell.)

Since I had a third hive ready to set up, I brought it out from the shop, and we took the frame with the swarm cell and three frames of brood and put them into the new hive. Once the queen hatches from the swarm cell, she will start laying in that hive. That is what is referred to as splitting a hive. Talk about perfect timing. So, now we have four active hives. I also set a swarm trap very near the hives in case the last hive we opened plans to swarm. The two hours spent with James in the hives was the best education I have had on working the hives since we started keeping bees. Soon after James and I had finished with the hives, I took the turkeys halves off the smoker. They smelled delicious.

Saturday morning, Mama headed to Decatur and I headed to Weatherford. I was a little apprehensive because we had not been able to confirm the drop off for the hog and it was Easter weekend. As is typical, I need not have worried. When I got to the processor, there were three trucks with trailers in front of me waiting to offload their hogs. While I was waiting my turn, five more trailers showed up. Our pig walked off the trailer as easily and as willingly as she had walked on. It was kind of sad.

Meanwhile, Mama and the Wycoff’s were fighting some wind issues on the square in Decatur. Leah had gotten there early enough to get them a great spot, but they could not set up a pretty display of the nails or other items because of the wind. Nevertheless, they did very well. Mama sold almost $300 worth of nails while Leah sold about $150 worth of her handmade items. It could have been better but was a good day for them. It was encouraging to Mama.

Once I was back at the farm, I made some syrup (sugar water) to fill a feeder I needed to install in the hive we had split from the original hive. Installing it in the hive was easily done and I moved on to look over the top bar hive I bought a year ago, made some modifications and set it up near the active hives. It is more or less an extra swarm trap, but I plan to put a swarm in that hive when I catch one in my traps.

If that does not work out, I have not lost much in trying. 

Constancy, weekend plans

As I was feeding yesterday evening, I remembered the old saying that if March comes in like a lamb it will go out like a lion – or vice versa. That held true this year. March 1^st was a gentle day here, cool and quiet. Yesterday was a blustery day, warm and very windy. Today is calm and colder. April is here and Summer is coming to us with a blast of heat next week. We will go from high temperatures in the seventies to high temperatures in the nineties. All in the timeframe of several days. That is often how it happens here. Spring cool one day, Summer heat the next. But the arrival of Summer is a welcome shift for us – at least at the beginning of the hot season. By the time we get to September and have endured the heat for months, we will be ready for the cooling that follows. It is nice to live in an area where we have these seasons to anticipate – either with hope or dread. The changing of seasons is a constant reminder of the blessings of God and His continued watch care over His creation. Don’t like the weather outside (or the circumstances of your life), get ready, this too shall pass. Enjoying the beautiful weather outside (or the peaceful happy circumstances of your life) be prepared, this too shall pass.

Summer and Winter, Springtime and Harvest,

Sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,

Join with all nature in manifold witness,

To Thy great Faithfulness, Mercy and Love.

Mama is still working with her phone on updates or transfers. Mine finished early yesterday afternoon after I restarted it a couple times. With Mama’s I had to pause every app that was downloading and allow them to progress one by one. I was a little surprised by the slow response of her phone, but she did have several dozen apps that needed to be told to take their turn. She will finish the process today and all will be well – I hope. Tomorrow, we will be surrendering the old phones for a trade in against the new purchases and I will wipe them clean of our apps and history, so she has to finish today in getting her new phone fully updated. Victoria got Grandma taken care of yesterday evening. Grandma does not have very many apps on her phone so she could have done with a very scaled down model other than the fact that she loves the music and photo functions of the newer phones. For the moment, all is well on the technology side of our lives.

I often think of how nice it is to have this farm and the constancy of the feeding, gardening, fence repairs and building upkeep, the yardwork, the open ground around us and the lakes beside us. It is a gentle, powerful reminder that there is still peace in the world. With the turmoil of our present world and the growing conflict in our home country, it is nice to have this retreat. We will not always have it. There will come a time that it will prove too much for us to care for and Mama and I will have to give it up. But we have it now and it anchors us to the blessings of God. Plus, it provides me an opportunity for constant activity. Another constancy in our lives. Sometimes a burden but mostly blessing.

Tomorrow evening I will reposition the stock trailer and load the pig – hopefully. She will be taken to the processor early Saturday morning. The way of life on a farm, but I was praising the Lord that we have all the equipment we do to handle such an event. The trailer, the tractor, the hog building with the attached pen, etc. I suppose the pen is build well enough to keep the wild hogs away from our hog because I saw a large wild hog just outside the pen yesterday morning. Our sow is about the right age to attract the wild males to her, but I do not want to kill a wild hog when we are going to process our farm raised one. The challenge will be to get into the pen and level the ground where our hog has rooted out huge holes for herself. Removing a couple posts, the wire panels and a good amount of time will be what is required to get that done. Whether or not it is worth the effort to trump other cores I have to do will be the question for scheduling the work. For now, it will sit and wait but eventually it will get done. Certainly, before we get another pig to house there.

Mama is going to an event in Decatur Saturday for her Color Street business. She, Brittany and Leah Wycoff will be selling nails during the event. This event features venues aimed mostly at ladies; purses, clothing, handmade jewelry, etc., so it is perfect venue for Mama’s nails. I will be transporting the hog that morning so I will not be helping Mama get set up. Leah will be getting to the event as early as possible because spots are divvied out on a first come first served basis. Getting to the event early is a necessity to get a good spot for the event. Hopefully, they do well specially in making contacts with potential recruits.

I just hope Mama makes more than the spends.